Monday, January 31, 2011

Can It Happen In America?A Commentary by J. D. LongstreetThe United States is projected to have a larger Muslim population by 2030 than any European countries with the exception of Russia and France, although other European countries may have higher percentages of Muslims.(SOURCE)

As we watch the Egyptian government of Hosni Mubarak circle the drain and consider the protests already in progress in Jordan, we Americans might do well to ask if it can happen here.

Let’s be honest. The point of the Islamic arrow is pointed at “The Great Satan” – the United States.

The leader of Jordan's powerful Muslim Brotherhood (Hammam Saeed) warned Saturday that unrest in Egypt will spread across the Mideast and Arabs will topple leaders allied with the United States.

"The Americans and (President Barack) Obama must be losing sleep over the popular revolt in Egypt," he said. "Now, Obama must understand that the people have woken up and are ready to unseat the tyrant leaders who remained in power because of U.S. backing. … "We tell the Americans 'enough is enough'," he continued.(SOURCE)

Saeed is reported to have said that Arabs have grown disgruntled with U.S. domination of their oil wealth, military occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, and its support for "totalitarian" leaders in the region.

It is really a shame that all this disruption in the Middle East had to break loose while we have Jimmy Carter II in the Oval Office!

Every conservative drawing breath today understands that a strong US with a strong Commander-in-Chief is the only thing standing between a semi-orderly world and world-wide chaos.

“Oh, but Longstreet! There is the United Nations?” To that I would reply by holding my stomach and roaring a belly laugh -- running the risk, as we all now know, of herniating myself.

The United Nations is as anti-American as they come. Plus, the madmen from the Middle East control it, almost entirely.

As to the question of whether the Islamic rioting can happen here… yes, it can, and probably will. As the Islamic community grows in America so will its clout. Already, the calls for Sharia law are being whispered about.

This is a problem for America created by our very own constitution. Yes, I refer to the first amendment. In particular I refer to the right to practice one’s own religion. It is coming back to bite us in “the derriere.”

At this point in our history, there is simply no way to amend the constitution to outlaw the practice of certain religions in the United States. But, I will predict, that not too far into our future we will find it absolutely necessary to do just that and -- I am afraid – it will be too late.

What of America’s friend, Israel? She must seek new friends elsewhere. The Obama Administration has thrown Israel under the bus.

Having been reared as an evangelical Christian, I have a deep, ingrained, understanding of what this abandonment of Israel by Obama means for the US. It means God’s wrath will be turned against this country.

Of course, you are free to believe whatever you want. But, I am just expressing my own belief that an accounting will be required of America for her actions toward Israel.

Many in America believe we are already feeling the effects of “Divine Disgust” as our country teeters on the brink of economic disaster. Whether we like to admit it or not, America is eternally linked to Israel.

The so-called “cold peace” between Israel and Egypt is rapidly melting, right before our eyes. Should a Muslim theocratic regime wind up in power in Egypt, the southern threat to Israel will be renewed -- and remember, Israel no longer has the Sinai as a buffer.

And there is the Suez Canal through which much of the world’s oil must travel. It is unsettling, to say the least, to consider the possible choke-hold Islamic fundamentalists could have on the world’s supply of oil.

Whether we want to admit it, or not, America and the free world are involved in a Third World War for dominance of the globe. There is no end in sight.

The plain truth is -- there is no way any nation practicing any religion other than Islam can exist in peace with the practioners of Islam.

The goal of the so-called "religion of peace" is to establish a worldwide caliphate (kingdom) ruled by Islamic law … period! It now appears they will accomplish their goal no matter how brutal the strategy and tactics required.

In answer to the question posed in the title to this commentary: Yes, it can happen here. In fact, it has already begun.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Israel Holds Its BreathBy Alan CarubaAfter more than three thousand years of varying calamities, Jews have perfected survival against the odds. There is a joke they tell about “Jewish Zen”:

“Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out.Forget this and attaining Enlightenment will be the least of your problems.”

"Right now, Israel and those who support the Jewish State are holding their breath, watching events in Egypt. What is happening is not inconsequential, given that Egypt made peace with Israel in 1979 after a series of wars in which it had been soundly defeated."

When the flamboyant Gamal Abed Al Nasser died, Anwar al-Sadat became Egypt’s president and, together with Israeli Prime Minister, Menachem Begin, they turned a corner toward peace. The treaty was greeted with angry demonstrations throughout the Arab world. Sadat, the peacemaker, was assassinated by Muslim zealots.

At that point Hosni Mubarak became Egypt’s president and he has held the position for three decades as the head of what is essentially a one party system. There have been a half dozen assassination attempts on his life. He is 83 years old. Like most Arab nations and other third world nations, he ran an authoritarian regime.

The peace deal included the return of the Sinai desert to Egypt by Israel. Under former Prime Minister Arial Sharon, Israelis who had lived in the Gaza strip were forced to leave and it was turned over to the Palestine Authority in a “land-for-peace” swap. The peace loving Palestinians turned Gaza into a launch site for thousands of rockets into Israel.

Today, Egypt shares a border with Gaza, which features an unknown number of tunnels used to smuggle in weapons and goods. Gaza is run by Hamas, a terrorist Palestinian organization that drove the PA out at gunpoint.

So the fate of Egypt is of importance to Israel. To Israel’s north, another terrorist group, Hezbollah, has taken over the government of Lebanon without firing a shot. Christians, Druze and Marists, along with others in Lebanon have once again lost control over their nation, formerly peacefully governed by a constitutional coalition of Christians and Muslims.

None of this bodes well for Israel as it looks around at Middle Eastern and northern African nations in which governments are being overthrown for being noxious oppressors.

Of great importance to Israel at this time is the question of what action the United States will or will not take regarding the current turmoil. Since the Egyptian uprising appears to be a genuine people’s rebellion, the question is who ends up with the reins of power there? My bet is on the military.

Meanwhile, however, yet another United Nations resolution aimed at Israel like a guided missile is making its way through the Security Council and, at this point, only the U.S. can shoot it down with a veto.

The UN resolution declares that any construction in the West Bank by Israel is illegal, even if it is in its capitol, Jerusalem.

No American administration has been able to broker peace between Israel and the so-called Palestinians, the oldest existing group of “refugees” in the world.

Following the end of a failed war against the then new state of Israel, the Arab population that fled became the sole object and purpose of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). No other refugee group in the world enjoys this status.

There is a Palestinian problem because there is a United Nations problem.

The United Nations is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of its Middle Eastern and Islamic members.

What was to be a UN emergency response in May 1950, UNWRA has cost American taxpayers billions since then. Today, UNRWA continues to operate in both the Palestinian Authority-ruled West Bank and the Hamas-ruled Gaza, taken from the PA in June 2007. As noted in a recent article by Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld, in 2007 UNRWA employed more than 29,000, all but 200 of whom were Palestinians. Its “facilities and personnel have been tied to numerous terrorist attacks on Israel.”

Sixty years of stalled and failed peace talks, as well as terror campaigns against Israel, have deligitimized Palestinian claims.

Following Israel’s operation Cast Lead in December 2008 to stop Hamas and Islamic Jihad rocket attacks, the Obama administration promised $400 million for Gaza and $600 million for the West Bank.

Though not confirmed, the rumor-mill in Washington is saying that the Obama administration will not veto the latest in an endless succession of anti-Israel resolutions.

If true, President Obama would become the first U.S. President to not defend Israel’s sovereignty.

If true, it would signal to the entire Middle East and the world that America is abandoning the only true democracy in the region and its longtime ally.

The United Nations was founded in 1945 after World War Two. It has since become a cesspool of corruption and an international cancer determined to become a one-world government. The time is long overdue for the U.S. to stop funding it and, indeed, to withdraw from it.

If Obama does not veto the Security Council resolution, the U.S. will pay for that decision for decades to come. Israel will be in ever more certain peril.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

For one NOT to believe that Iran is behind the fall of the Mubarak government in Egypt requires a “head in the sand” detachment that I fail to grasp.What we are seeing on our TV screens is Egypt going over to the “dark side.” Egypt is lost. Maybe not at this moment in time, but inevitably – lost.

To our liberal brethren we say: This is what we warned about when we stressed maintaining a strong military and an equally strong foreign policy with a president strong enough to command respect from our friends and enemies alike.

Instead, we elected a president who immediately launched an “apology tour” of the globe exposing America’s chest to the arrows of our enemies.

What we are seeing in the Middle East including Tunisia, Yemen, Egypt, and to some extent Jordan and Lebanon, is a direct result of the Obama administration’s failure to support Israel -- and for Obama’s obvious favor of the Muslim nations surrounding our only democratic ally in the region.

As Obama’s own minister has said – the chickens are coming home to roost. The problem is, they are roosting on Obama’s Oval Office and his Clintonian State Department.

As I watched Obama’s Press Secretary, yesterday, squirm before the liberal press corps and stutter and stammer his way through a so-called press briefing, it was PAINFULLY obvious that the Obama administration is in WAY OVER ITS HEAD! I was compelled to shout aloud: “Where are the grown-ups?”

Look. When America is weak – Egypt and Iran is what we get! Yes, that IS a reference to the Carter administration. As someone said yesterday, “We’ve seen this movie before.” Indeed we have. It is the Carter administration, and his unbelievably dumb shenanigans with the Shah of Iran and the debacle that followed. Several decades later we are still paying, and paying in spades, for Jimmy Carter’s outstandingly naive approach to foreign policy.

Having learned nothing, Americans elected an even more naive president, Barack Obama. As I said, having learned nothing we are, indeed, doomed to repeat history.

Where does Obama hide when the defecation hits the rotary oscillator? Huh? He DOES seem to disappear until some adults can be gathered to figure a means to salvage the situation, brush him off, and stand him up in front of the teleprompters with a prepared text of flowing, lilting, oratory to hopefully offer balm to the troubled soul of the nation. (A little sarcasm there.) OK. So that is what they did early last evening.

Members of the liberal White House Press Corps asked yesterday: “Where is the President? Why isn’t he standing here, in person, speaking to the nation -- and to the world?” The answer is simple. The president is trying to figure out what to do -- so as to come down on the winning side—and look good doing it. After all, the election campaign for November 2012 has already begun. All the while his minions are frantically searching in the “round about” seeking someone, anyone, who knows, or MIGHT know, what to do when the ship hits the sand!

This is pathetic behavior from a pathetic White House! I cannot recall a presidential press secretary so at a loss for words as was Obama’s press secretary yesterday. Not all Tar Heels are that ineloquent. I’m sure he is a nice guy, but, for god’s sake, couldn’t we have someone who could string two or three words together without an “uh,” or an ‘er,” or, “you know.” The whole thing made me extremely uncomfortable and I feel certain it did not inspire confidence in the America people.

Are we seeing a White House undone? I don’t think there can be any doubt. They could not be more confused and clueless.

Americans will feel the pinch, once again, at the gas pumps as prices rise. Yes, it DOES sound like the Carter Administration!

There is a price to be paid for national stupidity. We Americans are paying that price for the election of Obama. And each day that painful price escalates.

As the Chief of the Global Police, Obama has failed miserably. America’s archenemy in the region, Iran, is gleeful over the events in Egypt and at Obama’s blatant failure to have little, if any, influence on what will, eventually, become an Egyptian Islamic state tied to Iran. With the fall of Egypt, Iran will become THE power broker in the region leading, inevitably, to a head-on clash with the US and Israel in what could be a nuclear confrontation spreading into Eastern Europe and Africa.

Friday, January 28, 2011

"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law, which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

There is the problem -- section one of the 14th amendment. It HAS to be changed -- or a new amendment passed and ratified by the states to stop anchor babies.

How many “legal” Americans understand that over 300,000 babies are born to illegal immigrants, every year, here in the states? (Actually, the figure is closer to 350,000 babies born each year in the US to illegal aliens.) The US continues to be the only nation that still allows so-called “Anchor Babies.”

Just so we are clear on exactly what an Anchor Baby is -- the term “Anchor Babies” is used to identify babies born in the US from illegal alien mothers.

Under the Immigration Act of 1965, Anchor Babies can, at the age of 21, bring in their family as permanent residents of the US.

In 1866 Senator Jacob Howard explained the original intent of the 14th Amendment to the constitution. He said: “Every person born within the limits of the United States, and subject to their jurisdiction, is by virtue of natural law and national law a citizen of the United States. This will not, of course, include persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers accredited to the Government of the United States, but will include every other class of persons."

As every year passes more and more illegal aliens are taking advantage of American largesse by breaking and entering the United States illegally and having their babies on US soil effectively anchoring their family in the US through the instant citizenship of that baby. This can no longer be allowed.

It is past time for the United States to either enforce the 14th amendment, as it was originally intended, or amend the constitution to outlaw “Anchor Babies.”

The lines are already forming while the new Congress has barely warmed the cushions of their seats.

The US is, for all intents and purposes, BROKE! And yet we continue to allow illegal aliens to bleed us even drier. US Taxpayers are footing the bills for their birth, medical care, their education, (even college), and their food, darn near everything. Uncle Sam has become Uncle Sucker!

Some in Congress say we can correct this situation with another law. I don’t buy it and here’s why: A law will not stand the scrutiny of the US Supreme Court. (At least not the liberal court we have now.) So, the only way to get any kind of citizenship reform that actually works -- is to amend the US Constitution. You can believe if an amendment was passed by both houses of the Congress, and signed by the President, ratification by the states would come almost overnight.

The fly in the ointment, at the moment, is, of course, the President. Obama will never sign anything that might slow the flood of illegal aliens (or as some refer to them “Undocumented Democrats!”) into the US. There is no way he would ever sign an amendment to the constitution that would put a stop to looting of the US Treasury by anchor babies.

But the groundwork must be laid sooner rather than later. As we look toward the elections in 2012, with a eye toward a conservative take over of the Congress and the office of the President, we must be ready to seize the moment and get an amendment through and on to the states for ratification as early as possible in 2013 or 2014.

As evidence of the urgency some states are feeling there have been reports that a number of states are investigating the possibility of creating “STATE CITIZENSHIP.” To qualify for citizenship in those states a baby must be born with at least one parent a legal and permanent resident or citizen of the state.

We “legal” Americans have to take back our country. The flood of illegal immigrants and “Anchor Babies” must be stopped. We know how. The question now is: Do we have the will?

We know our divided government is wishy-washy on the issue. But little doubt exists that the majority of the American people have the will. We want it done and done quickly.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

“The American people have told the government we do not want ObamaCare in any form. As evidence of this, look at the number of states that have already amended their state constitutions to ban any kind of government healthcare mandates handed down by the federal government.

If you know your American history then you already know this has happened before in the US. Just before the American Civil War broke out into a shooting war, the southern states began passing “nullification” laws, within the states, which nullified federal laws and mandates placed on those states by the federal government of that day. Simply put a nullification law means those states will NOT adhere to, or abide by, those federal laws and mandates. Need I remind you of the next step taken by those states?The American Civil War did not have to happen. It DID happen because the arrogant US Congress of that day refused to listen to the people of the southern states telling them, flat out, they would leave the Union if the Congress continued to govern against the will of the southern people.

States all over the nation are frantically attempting to get the attention of the federal government by passing modern day nullification laws.”

Today, eleven months after I wrote the words above, ten states are seriously investigating the possibility of nullification of the ObamaCare laws in their states.

Just yesterday republican lawmakers in the Idaho State House introduced legislation, which would resurrect the nullification measure in the state of Idaho. At the same time, Alabama, Kansas, Maine, Missouri, Montana, Oregon, Nebraska, Texas, and Wyoming are all looking at the same thing.

Ok. You say nullification is not constitutional, right? So what? Consider: There are fifty states -- and one federal government.

Americans have forgotten and most, today, were never taught the simply fact that the federal government was created by the states to act as an agent of the states—and not the other way around. SOMEHOW, SOMEWAY, it has gotten all twisted around and large portions of Americans now believe they have no recourse when the federal government acts in ways that do harm to the states and the people of those states.

State sovereignty is real. Forgotten, and in most cases, buried way back in the dusty collective memory of this nation… but it IS there and it still has a pulse and it is still viable.

I have spoken to people over the years that actually believe the US constitution forbids secession by a state or states. It does not.

The original Articles of Confederation forbade any state from seceding -- unless ALL states seceded -- which would have, effectively, ended the “United” States as a single country.

The founders went out of their way NOT to address state secession when the current US constitution was drafted.

When my confederate ancestors concluded it was time to withdraw from the Union, they looked for any hint in the constitution that would forbid them doing so. Finding none, they went their separate way. They were dragged back after an invasion of their country by US armed forces and forced back into “the Union” at the point of a bayonet.

I am convinced that not only were my confederate ancestors right then, but the states investigating nullification, today, as a way to tell the federal government, “enough,” “no more,” are correct in doing so.

Look. This is serious business. I have read “smirking” reports in the mainstream media concerning the states and nullification. I expect you have seen them and heard them, as well. Here’s the truth about that: Those same kinds of reports by the press were made in the mid 1800’s and we all know what happen in April of 1861.

I don’t think the folks in the mainstream media, living their sheltered lives in the metropolitan areas on the east coast and the west coast, have any real idea of the American rage sweeping the nation between their respective coasts. They certainly give no evidence of it, if they do.

I am not beating a drum for the break-up of the United States. I am trying to make the point that if the people of America are not allowed to live and breath free, that break-up will happen whether anyone beats a drum for it, or not! Fanning the flames of a prairie fire is not required for a little grass fire to become a huge firestorm. It requires only a spark – and sparks are flying all across this land.

Media folk may snicker at the folks in the aforementioned states if they choose. But remember, it has happened before on this very soil.

Americans have a proud history of raising their hackles, baring their fangs, and striking back at a government that overreaches. The government of King George tried it. The US Congress, in the early 1800’s, tried it. The Lincoln administration tried it, and all met with massive resistance. Now, the US government, under the leadership of a socialist executive branch, is trying it, yet again. Is there any reason to believe that the same resistance to tyranny, that lies in the heart of every red-blooded American descendent of those early patriots, will not sound the call “to the barricades” just as mightily as did their forefathers? I think not!

Dismissing state sovereignty movements and nullification movements within a disgruntled America has always led to conflict, disunion, and ultimately, a nation at war with itself.

The warning signs are all there -- if our so-called leaders in Washington care to acknowledge them. The price for ignoring the ominous signs abounding across America today will be immeasurable.

Like the proverbial snowball rolling downhill gaining momentum and size as it goes, resistance against the overreach of the liberal-socialist agenda in the government of the US is growing, exponentially, into a force that will not be denied.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

The announced departure of Carol Browner as President Obama’s climate “czar” is very good news for America, given her long record of contempt for the truth regarding “global warming” and a range of other Environmental Protection Agency initiatives when she served as former President Clinton’s director of the EPA.

The decision to leave could have been motivated to put some distance between herself and the White House to afford the President some political cover.

Whatever reason will be put forth for her leaving, the real reason is her justified concern that she will be summoned before a congressional committee to explain why, for example, she deliberately misled Americans during the BP oil spill, going on national television to say that most of the oil was gone. She cited a White House commission created to investigate the spill, implying that the scientist’s report had confirmed the need for a moratorium on oil drilling in the Gulf when, in fact, they had not supported it.

Browner has been a dedicated socialist, serving as a Commissioner of the Socialist International, an umbrella group for 170 “social democratic, socialist, and labor parties” in 55 nations. According to its “organizing document”, the SI cites capitalism as the cause of “devastating crisis”, “mass unemployment”, “imperialist expansion” and “colonial exploitation” worldwide. This is straight out of the Communist Manifesto.

When her role with SI was revealed, its website scrubbed her photo and evidence of her commission membership. No doubt several of Obama’s “czars” have shared similar views of capitalism. One, Van Jones, was forced to resign as the "Green Jobs Czar" when it was revealed he was a communist.

Obama’s election was, in effect, a socialist takeover of the executive branch of the U.S. government.

Browner’s dedication to the Big Lie of “global warming” goes back to her days when she served as then-Senator Al Gore’s legislative director from 1988 to 1988. Browner’s devotion to environmentalism resulted in her being named Florida’s Secretary of Environmental Regulation from 1991 to 1993. After the 1992 presidential election, she served as a transition director for Vice President-elect Gore.

Global warming is the assertion that the Earth is rapidly warming as the result of the buildup of “greenhouse gases”, most particularly carbon dioxide.

The “theory” is now totally discredited, but continues as justification for a variety of policies such as the administration’s emphasis on wind and solar energy, attacks on the coal and oil industries, and efforts that would drive up the cost of electricity to business, industry, and all consumers.Browner is on record saying that global warming is “the greatest challenge ever faced” despite revelations in 2009 that the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had rigged the computer model's global temperature records to advance the fraud.

Global warming is the basis for the Cap-and-Trade legislation that was stalled in the Senate during the first half of Obama’s term. Since then, the EPA under Lisa Jackson, a Browner acolyte, has asserted that it intends to regulate CO2 and other greenhouse gases. The EPA has no such authority under the Clean Air Act. Such regulations would have a devastating affect on the nation’s economy.

In December 1992, President-elect Bill Clinton named Browner as his choice to head the Environmental Protection Agency and she was confirmed by the Senate on January 21, 1993. She would become the longest-serving EPA director.

Despite a J.D. degree from the University of Florida College of Law in 1979, Browner has frequently shown a contempt for the law. In 1995, she used her position at the EPA to lobby more than a hundred grassroots environmental groups to oppose the Republican-led Congress’s regulatory initiatives to curb the EPA. In doing so, she violated the Anti-Lobbying Act. The Browner-led EPA was strongly rebuked by a bipartisan subcommittee of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee.

On her last day as EPA Director, Browner ordered a computer technician to delete all her computer files despite a federal judge’s order requiring the agency to preserve those files. It was later learned that three other high-ranking EPA officials had also violated the judge’s order. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth held the EPA in contempt of Congress in 2001.

During secret negotiations with auto industry executives on behalf of the Obama administration, Browner directed them “to put nothing in writing” as she orchestrated an agreement to increase federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFÉ) standards. Federal law requires officials to preserve documents concerning significant policy decisions.

In these and countless other unknown ways, Carol Browner has used the reins of power as EPA Director and later as President Obama’s climate advisor to assert EPA and government control over every aspect of the lives of Americans, limiting their choices, and in the process harming the nation’s economy.

Until the nation is released from the grip of such environmental/socialist zealots, its future remains in jeopardy.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

The state of the union is godawful! There. That is a truthful and complete statement concerning the REAL state of the union.

I have mentioned, a number of times in the past, how much I would like to see a President stand before the Congress, and the nation, and say either the state of the union is good, or the state of the union is awful – and then sit down.

See, the President is not required to make that speech. He IS required to make the report to Congress, however. But, he can mail it in, if he so chooses.

In modern times it has become pure theatre. Nothing substantive, just pure politics, pure entertainment, and of little, if any, use to a nation as well informed about it’s government as the American nation.

I rarely watch a State of the Union address. I don’t need to watch it or listen to it. Like many Americans today I pay attention to what the government and the nation are doing so I don’t need to have the President tell me what I already know. Unfortunately, that does not stop them from preening before the cameras and having their ego stroked by their fellow dogmatists on the left and/or the right.

Look: Americans don’t need to hear Obama’s speech to know that he is tacking right -- toward the center. He got his knuckles rapped, AND HARD, last November, and he knows Americans are fairly PO’ed at him and his fellow democrats for their far left/socialist agenda. He got it.

Understand, though, this is all for show. I mean, of course, Obama’s feint to the center. It is not to be taken seriously. Oh, the mainstream media will taut his centrist governing, etc, ad nausium. But one must remember -- the mainstream media is a propaganda machine for Obama and the political left in America.

Mr. Obama is too much a leftist/socialist ideologue to actually move to the center, even to move right an inth degree. Even this “kabuki theatre” stunt must be galling to him. At some point in the near future watch for him to break from his tenders and make a blatant leftist move. He can’t help himself. It WILL happen. And we will be waiting. In fact, we need to nudge him on towards that break with his political minders sooner rather than later. The sooner the “centrist” façade is lifted the better it will be for conservatives in the November election of 2012.

Another thing: The symbolism of democrats and republicans sitting shoulder to shoulder throughout the House chamber is, I think, an awful idea. It only serves the democrats, who were trounced last November, to be seen smoozing with the republicans who cleaned their clocks. They hope to send the message that THEY GOT THE MESSAGE and will do better for their constituents back home. It is pure bovine scatology. Nothing more -- and I do not like it.

There is an aisle between the dems and the repubs because there is a political chasm between them that should never be bridged. The differences between the leftists and the rightists are deeply profound. That is the core reason why we have the political divide. Having them sitting together, all lovey-dovey, is purely cosmetic and will serve only to confuse the TV viewer.

Heck, I like to see the different parties rise to acclaim something their president says. I also like to see those who remain seated in defiance or disagreement. That is pure Americanism on display. There is such a thing as “too much togetherness.”

The point is – we conservative sent a new batch of conservative congresspersons to Washington to get in the faces of the old crowd and shake things up and reclaim the constitution as the supreme authority for law making in America.

As much as some would like, the US House of Representatives is NOT a communist Duma. In the old communist Dumas nobody cared who sat beside whom because all were going to vote the same way or be shot dead -- and a bill for the price of the 9 MM bullet sent to the family of the late departed. No. We’re not there – yet.

With dems and repubs sitting together it smacks, to me, of more “collectivism,” which is un-American, and it portrays an inaccurate picture of the American government to the world. But – it helps the liberal-socialists of the Democratic Party. THAT – I cannot abide.

Conservatives have a very tough slog ahead over the next two years. Our primary concern should be to see that we stop the liberal-socialists of the Democratic Party and hold them until we can secure the US Senate and deny Obama a second term in November of 2012.

For Obama to have a second term, with no fear of re-election, would be devastating to the United States. So far, Mr. Obama has been holding back. A second term would remove the reins altogether and his socialist agenda would be rammed down the throats of the American people.

My Congressman is a conservative "Blue Dog" democrat. He is going to sit with a couple of republican congressmen from my state – and I don’t like it. I’d prefer that he remain on his side of the aisle.

No matter from which side the idea sprang, left or right, republican or democrat, it is a BAD IDEA and will help only the democrats. That is why they seized on it as quickly as they did.

There is divided government in America because America is divided -- and it ought to be.

One has to wonder, after Obama made a point of attacking the Supreme Court Justices last year, if all of them will attend this State of the Union. Any of them can make a powerful statement simply by staying away.

When all is said and done, this State of the Union will be nothing more than political theatre with the mainstream media acting as cheerleaders for Obama and the liberal-socialists of the left. I can read their swooning reports in the morning papers, tomorrow, and regurgitate!

Monday, January 24, 2011

The Hell Of Dealing With Customer Service In AmericaA Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

This commentary has nothing to do with politics, nothing to do with religion, nothing to do with the god awful state of affairs our government finds itself in, nor the financial mess the country and most of us, individually, share.

What it does have to do with is my recent venture into the muck and mire of endeavoring to deal with a number of customer service/customer relations departments of several rather large corporations.

Earlier this month, my wife and I decided to leave our mortgage-free home of over two decades, and move into a much smaller rental residence which will be far more economical—easier on our already badly strained budget.

In the spirit of full disclosure, allow me to explain, right up front, that my wife will not allow me to deal directly with ANY customer relations department. She says I am insensitive to the feelings of the personnel manning the phones at their respective call centers and that I have a temper, which I cannot control, and that I can be a real pain in the rear when I become frustrated with what I perceive as poor service from the people whose job it is to provide that service. I plead guilty to all the above.

Having set the stage, allow me to describe, as best I can (without profanity), the complete lunacy of our venture into the “la-la land” of customer service.

One thing: Is it just me – or is it too much to ask that customer service representative know, at least, some rudimentary details about the service(s) the company they work for offers? Huh?

To begin with, we asked our phone company to simply switch our phone service to our new address maintaining the same telephone number we have had for nearly 30 years. That is simple enough, you’d think. You would be WRONG!

Not only was our number not switched, but we were assigned a new number, which had already been assigned to a business of some kind! It took multiple calls to customer service and a threat to go to the state Utilities Commission -- and roughly ten days -- just to get that corrected and get our old number back.

A couple of days later, we realized our “busy call forwarding” had been disconnected, somehow, and it took an additional two days to FINALLY get someone to explain to us that the company “serving” us only offered that service within a bundle of other services – none of which we needed – plus, the price had more than tripled! We dropped it.

We got our working number, sans busy call forwarding, yesterday. Remember now, we moved into our new residence on the 8th of January.

When the cable installer came we asked for a second connection and were informed (on the spot) by the installer that we must have a written “letter of permission” from the landowner to install a second connection. We explained that the landowner was several states removed from our location and we were informed that we could fax the letter of permission to the cable company and the installer would make a second visit to our home to install the second connection… which we are paying for even now.

Why weren’t we told that when we originally contacted the cable provider and told them we needed to have our cable transferred to the new residence? Now we wait. While we wait we cannot enjoy that second connection, which, as I said above, we are continuing to pay for.

Trying to get a trash container at the new residence was a real eye-opener. It seems the company, which is a nation-wide organization, didn’t seem to have us on their books as customers even though they have been picking up our garbage for decades and we pay the fee each month.

After days of trying to figure out how to convince them we REALLY were customers, we learned, by word of mouth, that we must go to the county TAX OFFICE to request a new garbage can! How quaint! We got a new garbage can the middle of this week. All sorts of smart-alackey remarks spring to mind about taxes and garbage containers – none of which I will print here.

Some of you will not find this surprising. However, we rarely ever change our residence. So all of this blind-sided us.

During this melee, I made a few observations. I concluded that if the customer service reps were not so busy trying to sell us something they would have more time to actually listen to what we were saying -- and get it FIXED!

I also concluded that too many of those customer reps, on the phone, have little, if any, idea of what, exactly, their company does, let alone how it does it. This can only be the result of the lack of proper training. The fault for that lies directly at the feet of the company brass. They ought to be ashamed. The customer service reps, much like bank tellers of old, are the representatives of their companies who actually come into direct contact with their public -- and most importantly -- their customers. They become the face of that company. The customer service reps, of all the personnel of any company, have the most influence upon the future of a prosperous business or a failed business! It is elementary.

I am now convinced that those automated customer service menus we are subjected to when we phone customer service, are entirely too complicated for the average person and I have to wonder if that is intentional.

Several times, I became frustrated – and after starting the menu over several times and STILL not getting where I wished to go (electronically) -- that I hung up the phone.

I now believe that a frustrated customer hanging up the phone is considered desirable by some businesses and that explains their convoluted customer service menus. I don’t like believing this, but how else is it explained?

I learned that I was wrong in my belief that once I got a real, live, human being on the other end of the line all would be well, and my problem would be solved. I no longer believe that, either.

What I do believe, based on my most recent combat with various customer service departments, is that service is lousy in America.

Look: America stopped being a manufacturing society/economy a long time ago. We became a service economy. We provide service and services. At least, we SAY we do.

I must tell you that America provides awful service. What I just endured is pathetic… awful… unforgivable… indefensible, and just plain shameful.

This is no way to do business.

I am old enough to remember when American business actually took pride in a job well done. It was true from manufacturing an item, or creating a service, to “making it right” when something went wrong with the item they made or the service they provided. Sadly, that is not the case today -- and it speaks volumes about how and why America is in the mess that it is today. Apathy! In plain language… nobody gives a damn!

Good “customer relations” is a thing of the past. It now belongs among the relics of a by-gone era when Americans actually took pride in their work, took pride in the company they worked for -- and yes, the company took pride in its products and services and most important of all --did not take their customers for granted.

The REALLY sad thing about all this is – I don’t expect it to improve.

You see, Americans have become used to mediocrity. We have forsaken excellence.Now we seem to just want to get by. The old expression: “Good enough for government work” seems to be the code of conduct prevailing in the American workplace today.

Until we again claim excellence as our goal in business, in government, in education, and in our personal lives, we can never hope to regain our position as the leader of the world.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

I have known a few Communists in my time. The worst of them are the unrepentant ones, still aglow from the 1960s and 70s when the college campuses and streets were filled with protesters of every description. Others have unhappy memories of the FBI keeping track of them. The best of them had an epiphany at some point in their lives and realized that they truly were, as Lenin called them, “useful idiots.”

I have a tenuous link with one of them, Mark Rudd, because he grew up in the town where I lived most of my life and even attended the high school from which I had graduated ten years earlier. Maplewood, New Jersey had been, in my time, a solidly Republican community, a bedroom town for New York executives who caught the train every morning for the commute.

That began to change imperceptivity as young Democrats began to move in during the Kennedy years and thereafter. In time they gained political control and many of my generation, thanks to ever rising property taxes, began to move to Florida or, in my case, one town over to a new apartment complex.

Once years ago while I was in the bank in Maplewood, I ran into Mark Rudd. We exchanged a few pleasantries, but nothing memorable. By then he was no longer a fugitive from the FBI for having been one of the leaders of the infamous Weather Underground, a group that included Barack Obama’s longtime friend and associate, Bill Ayers and his wife, Bernadine Dorhn.

Though he didn’t directly participate, Rudd knew of a Weather Underground plot to plant bombs at an officer’s club at Fort Dix in 1970 to protest the Vietnam War. When the bombs instead went off in the New York townhouse, killing several of his friends, Rudd concluded that dying senselessly while planning to kill others for a “righteous” cause was not the way he wanted to end up.

Just ask any of the Vietnamese who were lucky enough to escape and to come to America after the fall of Saigon how they feel about his righteous cause. To this day they embrace the veterans who fought there and the nation that took them in and granted them its precious citizenship.

Rudd, however, is an unrepentant communist. His friend, Bill Ayers, has referred to himself as “A communist with a small ‘c’” as if that makes a difference. It doesn’t.

The shooting in Tucson roused Rudd to pen an opinion published in the Jan. 16 Washington Post. It was titled “An ex-Weather Underground radical on the Tucson shootings and political violence.” He recalled that, in 1970 when he was 22 years old, he knew of the plot “and to my eternal shame, I didn’t try to stop it.” Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

“I considered myself an agent of necessity in a political revolution”, wrote Rudd and then added that, even if Jared Loughner was insane, Rudd was sure “he convinced himself that he was doing what needed to be done.”

This is Rudd’s great insight. It is a conclusion that only someone on the farthest reaches of the Left could arrive. It is the conclusion of someone who had decided to devote himself to the nihilistic, atheistic, and totalitarian dogma of the Left.

“As the Weather Underground believed in the absolute necessity of bombs to address actual moral grievances such as the Vietnam War and racism,” wrote Rudd, “Loughner might have believed in the absolute necessity of a Glock to answer his imagined moral grievances.”

For Rudd it was not hard to come up with “moral grievances” when he was in his twenties and his “guerilla hero” was Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, a notorious killer of Fidel Castro’s political opponents. There was nothing heroic about Guevara. He was a psychopath for whom the Cuban communist revolution was just an excuse to indulge his murderous fantasies.

There are somewhere around eighty to ninety million Americans who own guns without coming to the conclusion they have a moral right to use them to kill for any other reason than self-defense.

After the Tucson shooting, the local citizens could not get to the gun stores fast enough to buy guns for their own protection. After Barack Obama was elected, many Americans decided they needed a gun.

Rudd is like many former youthful revolutionary wannabes of the 1970’s with fantasies of changing America to become a new worker’s paradise. These days, decades later, he is married and the father of two children. An article on his website says he is a registered Democrat, but usually votes for the Greens.

After surrendering to the FBI in 1977, he faced only misdemeanor charges. He was fined $2,000 and spent two years on probation. His mother famously asked, “How could you do this to me?”

In 2006-2008, Rudd was a leader of the Movement for a Democratic Society, a network based on his days in the Students for a Democratic Society. Rudd is still a communist along with Ayers, Dohrn, and Jeff Jones, a former Obama “czar” who resigned when people found out.

In 2008, three MDS members, Tom Hayden, Barbara Ehrenreich, and Bill Fletcher, Jr., founded Progressives for Obama, which Rudd endorsed.

The sad part of this is that the Washington Post thought his commentary was worth publishing.

He repeated the calumny against Sarah Palin that she rightly deemed “a blood libel.” Moronically, Rudd concluded that though Loughner was “the product of a different era and may have been motivated only by his madness” his anticipated incarceration will give him “a long time to consider the logic of his alleged actions.”

Insanity defies logic. That’s why it’s called insanity!

Rudd has had over forty years to consider the logic of his commitment to communism and has not arrived at a conclusion that he was ever wrong or that communism is a failed system that exists only through coercion and terror.

He and his friends from the 1970s surely took pleasure in the election of President Obama who was mentored in his youth by Frank Marshall Davis, a card-carrying member of the Communist Party U.S.A.

The spontaneous Tea Party movement devoted to the Constitution and the repeal of Obamacare must be a mystery to Rudd.

As his generation passes from the scene, one can only hope that a new generation of young Americans, passing through a period comparable to the Great Depression do not embrace the communism that many of that earlier era thought was the answer to capitalism.

It wasn’t then. It isn’t now. Liberty, the reason for the American Revolution, is the answer and always will be.

President Obama’s healthcare program came under intense scrutiny in 2010. As we enter 2011, we need to open our eyes to what is really going on behind his green energy propaganda, as well. To some, it may not seem as desperate an issue as healthcare, but it will grow to become just as devastating to those citizens among us who are poor, because access to affordable energy affects everything we do.

The administration’s green policies are being thrust into a precarious American economy. Every “green scenario” shows raised energy costs across the board. Not only will the average person pay more for energy; many will lose their jobs as the forced transition to alternative power sources rocks the stability of current energy-producing and energy-using companies.

Skyrocketing energy prices and lost jobs also mean millions of otherwise healthy Americans are subjected to new health threats: higher air conditioning, heating, transportation and other energy bills. For those who cannot afford the increased costs, this can mean death from heat stroke and hypothermia; reduced budgets for healthy food, proper healthcare, home and car repairs, college, retirement, and charitable giving; and psychological depression that accompanies economic depression.

Land withdrawals and leasing and permitting delays don’t just lock up vast energy storehouses. They kill jobs, eliminate billions in government bonus, rent, royalty and tax revenues – and force us to spend other billions to import more oil that we could produce right here at home.

The White House agenda represents a double power grab. It usurps state, local and private sector control over energy prices and generation, and gives it to unelected Washington bureaucrats. It also seizes our reliable, affordable energy, and replaces it with expensive, intermittent power.

While many Americans are duped into thinking renewable energy sources are the ticket to a clean world, they have not looked at the downside to these energy sources. Replacing fossil fuel power with coerced renewable energy means millions of acres will be covered with turbines and solar panels, and built with billions of tons of concrete, steel, copper, fiberglass and rare earth metals. It means millions of acres of forest and crop land will be converted to farming for inefficient biofuels that also require vast inputs of water, pesticides, fertilizers and hydrocarbon fuels.

Moreover, wind and solar facilities work only 10-30 percent of the time, compared to 90-95 percent for coal, gas and nuclear power plants. Even worse, prolonged cold is almost invariably associated with high atmospheric pressure, and thus very little wind. On December 21, 2010 – one of the coldest days on record for Yorkshire, England (undoubtedly due to global warming) – the region’s coal, gas and nuclear power plants generated 53,000 megawatts of electricity; its wind turbines provided a measly 20 MW, or 0.04% of the total. The same high pressure, no wind scenario happens on the hottest summer days.

“Renewable” and “clean” energy projects received $30 billion in subsidies under the gargantuan stimulus bill. They got another $3 billion in the “lame duck” tax deal. Federal wind power subsidies are $6.44 per million BTUs – dozens of times what coal and natural gas receive, to generate 1/50 of the electricity that coal does. At current and foreseeable coal and gas prices, wind (and solar) simply cannot compete.

As to “green” jobs, Competitive Enterprise Institute energy analyst Chris Horner calculates that the stimulus bill’s subsidies for wind and solar mean taxpayers are billed $475,000 for each job created. Texas Comptroller Susan Combs reports that property tax breaks for wind projects in her state cost nearly $1.6 million per job. “Green energy” is simply unsustainable, environmentally and economically.

President Obama and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson may be convinced that we face a manmade climate change crisis, and unacceptable health risks from power plant and refinery emissions. However, their “climate science” is little more than a self-proving theory: no matter what happens – hotter or colder, wetter or drier, more storms or fewer – it’s “proof” of global warming.

Thousands of scientists say there is yet no real evidence that we face such a crisis, and most coal-fired power plants and refineries have already reduced their harmful emissions to the point that only the most sensitive or health-impaired would be harmed.

The problem is not runaway global warming. It is a runaway and unaccountable federal bureaucracy.

Putting the green power grab into even sharper focus are these eye-opening comments from two “socially responsible” CEOs, who have lobbied the Congress, EPA and White House intensely for cap-tax-and-trade, far tougher emission policies and still more subsidies. We thank the Wall Street Journal for bringing them to our attention.

EPA’s regulations “increase operating costs for coal-fired generators and ultimately increase the price of energy” for families and companies that need electricity, observed Exelon CEO John Rowe. “The upside for Exelon is unmistakable. Exelon’s clean [mostly nuclear] generation will continue to grow in value in a relatively short time. We are of course positioning our portfolio to capture that value.”

“Even without legislation in Congress, EPA is marching forward in terms of regulating carbon dioxide,” noted Lewis Hay, CEO of NextEra Energy, America’s largest producer of wind and solar power. “That puts us in a very good position.”

The Journal summarized the situation succinctly in a recent editorial: “The EPA is abusing environmental law to achieve policy goals that the democratic process rejected, while also engineering a transfer of wealth from the 25 states in the Midwest and South that get more than 50 percent of their electricity from coal. The industry beneficiaries [of these destructive regulations] then pretend that this agenda is nothing more than a stroll around Walden Pond, when it’s really about lining their own pockets.”

It is time to face reality. Misnamed “green energy” policies severely undermine any opportunity America may have to rebuild her economy. Perpetuating current jobless rates would be just the tip of the iceberg, if we follow the path that EPA and the White House have laid in front of us.

Let your legislators know that you do not support the White House’s current green programs. We cannot afford to go broke trying to go green.

_________

Bishop Harry Jackson, Jr. and Niger Innis are co-chairs of the Affordable Power Alliance, a humanitarian coalition of civil rights, minority, small business, senior citizen and faith-based organizations that champion access to reliable, affordable energy: http://www.affordablepoweralliance.org/

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Conservatives have their backs up, their hackles are trembling with anticipation of what they feel will be the inevitable sell-out by the GOP in coming weeks and months. They are on tiptoe, leaning forward, every muscle taunt with tension, ready to explode in a firestorm of action that will ultimately create another political party in America and instantly plunge the GOP into third party status.The republicans seem not to understand that this is their last shot at getting it right. Conservatives grudgingly gave them this chance because there was no other viable political party they felt they could entrust with the battle plan to unseat Obama and his socialist agenda for the United States.

It was a gamble. Conservatives knew that. But with no conservative political party on the field of battle, there was no choice.

There is very little faith within the conservative community that the GOP can get the job done. In fact, many of us are sure THEY WILL NOT GET THE JOB DONE because the GOP is not that different from the liberal-socialists of the Democratic Party.

Defeatist? Call it what you like. I call it as I see it.

Now, here, as I see it, is what we conservatives need -- our own political party.

The plain truth is -- conservatives can never hope to have a lasting effect upon politics in the United States until they/we have our own political party.

Conservatives cannot join with the liberal-socialists of the Democratic Party and we cannot trust the limp wrists in the Republican Party to speak for us. Therefore, we have no alternative but to pull out of the GOP, or any other political party affiliation we may have, and combine our strength, numbers, and our boundless energy in our own political party.

I know, I know. It has been tried before and failed. Remnants of past conservative political parties haunt all of us. Their failure, in my opinion, was the direct result of not having the absolutely, positively, most important component of a political party’s core. That is grassroots commitment.

Today’s Tea Party movement provides, what I think could very well be that core element for a third, and a successful, political party, a conservative political party.

As I have noted in earlier commentaries – I believe the Tea Party movement has “maxed-out” as a political movement. That is not meant as a “pit-down.” It is an observation, by a long-time watcher of politics in America – me.

There is only so much a political movement can do. Often that proves to be their success in pushing conservatives candidates victoriously across the finish line and into seats in Congress and state legislatures. And that is extremely important. Unfortunately, one the candidate is ensconced in his or her congressional or senatorial seat, they tend to fall in line behind the leaders of their respective caucus and simply ignore the political movement whose tireless efforts got them there in the first place. That is the fear expressed so often to me by my conservative friends and contacts about the newly elected conservatives in the US House of Representatives. Once they are in office, there is, in truth, little a political movement can do except threaten to withhold support for their next political campaign. However, by that time the national party apparatus can offer its support to that incumbent to swing their fealty to them instead of the political movement that got them there in the first place.

We conservatives NEED TO BE THAT POLITICAL PARTY to have -- and wield – that sort of power.

In two years the most important election (even more important that the election last November) will be upon us. To be frank, it will be a humongous, nearly impossible, task to repeat the success of the Tea Party in the last election.

In order for conservatives to succeed in replacing the socialist- liberal Obama with a conservative (NOT A RINO, and NOT A MODERATE) president, claim enough seats in the Senate for control of that house, and maintain control of the House, we absolutely NEED the power of political PARTY!

It is urgent that the leaders of the conservative movement in America pull together the resources needed to organize and initiate a conservative political party at the earliest possible moment.

A conservative party must be made a reality if conservatives are ever to escape treatment as the “red-headed step-child” we so often decry.

The foundation for such a party already exists. Conservatives, it seems, need to be convinced of its necessity, and the upper echelons of the movement apparently need the will to take the plunge.

For the sake of our republic, we cannot wait. Now is the time. Today is the day.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

American Amazons -- To The Front!The Left’s Degradation Of American Women ContinuesA Commentary by J. D. LongstreetWomen assigned to frontline combat units is just another way to degrade women and prop-up the lie that women are equal to men -- in all things. Notice – I did say LIE! I admit it. I believe it! That is MY OPINION.

Now, I am the first to admit that men are not equal to women in a number of things. The first thing to come to mind is childbearing. We simply cannot do that. (Nor do we want to!)

I am convinced it is just another avenue the left has chosen to destroy what used to be the finest military the world has ever known. Today, the US military is quickly becoming second -- behind the Israeli Defense Force.

We can only pray that we will soon have a conservative Commander-in-Chief who will rebuild out military into a war-fighting force rather than the armed peace corps it has been transformed into by the liberal-socialists in the Congress and the White House.

If the current trend continues we will have the best dressed, best equipped, most inclusive military in the world, but -- one, which is unable to fight its way out of a wet paper bag.With homosexuals able to serve openly in the US military, I expect the country will have no other recourse than to allow women to serve in frontline units! Men, sure as hell, will not want to willingly join a service where homosexuality, a life-style condemned by none other than God, Himself, is accepted.

Oh, did I forget to mention the slaughter of women in frontline combat units? Well, of course, if we only require our military to act as good will ambassadors, charged only with winning the hearts and minds of the enemy (Pardon me while I laugh at “winning the hearts and minds of the enemy!”), and not winning battles or winning wars, then women on the front lines will be OK. Bored to death -- but not shot to death.

On the other hand, should we actually find that we have no other choice but to fire real bullets at an enemy and take incoming fire from said enemy, our women soldiers will be slaughtered.

You may choose to believe Hollywood productions in which tiny women toss men about as if they were dresses piled up on a sales table during a half-price sale, or, you can believe the truth. The truth is: It ain’t possible. Oh, sure, a handful of women can toss an average size man about – but that would be a miniscule number by any stretch of the imagination.

Know this: When ordered to place women in frontline combat positions, the US military WILL DO IT! It is far to politicized to balk and appeal to reason with its civilian commanders. Women will be sacrificed in large numbers before anyone has the cahones to protest that the frontline is no place for a woman – period!

Frontline combat in high intensity warfare is no place for a woman. It is dirty, it is brutal, and it is horrifying. It tears the strongest men to pieces -- physically and mentally. The blood, guts, and gore, the stench of death is everywhere. Once exposed to this degradation a soldier’s mind is forever scared.

Have we Americans become so crass, so insensitive to truth, so ignorant of the laws of nature that we are willing to place who reproduce our species in mortal danger in an attempt to prove an improvable lie that women and men are the same physically, mentally, and emotionally? Societies wishing to survive do not do something this utterly stupid.

Look, the US military needs soldiers who will stare death in the face and still leap toward the enemy as they are being splattered with their friend’s blood and gore, with the dying screams of their buddies to their left and right tearing at their ears through the cacophony of battle and STILL charge forward toward the enemy ripping and tearing his life from him until the battle is won.

Women cannot do that. Most women are not physically capable of performing in such a manner. Most women are not capable of withstanding the dirt, filth, blood, gore, and the pure animalistic bloodlust to kill, to wrench another man’s life from his body as he stares, horrified, into their eyes.

A combat soldier must live the remainder of his life with the memories of what he has done to a fellow human being on the field of battle. Those nightmares live forever. Do we really want the future mothers of our children to suffer from the effects of those mind shattering flashbacks and memories that create a living hell for them when the sounds of the guns cease?

Here in the South, southern boys are taught from early childhood to protect our womenfolk. They are made aware that women are the bearers of our children, that women are chief “child-care” specialists for our children as they are reared. We are taught that women bring civility, gentility, and yes, even religious faith to our society. Our women are more precious than the most priceless of gems. They are the linchpin that holds our society together. Without them – we would be nothing.

A southern soldier’s first reaction in combat will be to make every effort to protect the women in his unit – no matter that those women are also armed and trained to defend themselves. It is nearly instinctual for that southern cavalier to give his life to protect them FIRST, even placing their safety before the success of his mission. The military will have to train that out of him.

That, then begs the question: what kind of man will he become when he returns to his home after having been trained that his mother, his wife, his sister, his daughter is to be treated no differently than his beer-drinking buddies.

The ramifications of women in frontline combat units will have far reaching effects upon American society. There will be an immediate clash with southern culture and, I expect, with the cultures of the other regions of the country as well.

American society is already a near mirror image of the sordid society of the biblical Sodom and Gomorrah. We have a couple of generations, at least, that have been deeply influenced by the leftists fecal matter pumped into our homes (through television) from the sewer that is the leftist entertainment business. Our movies are profane, pornographic, and titillating. Our mainline religious denominations have surrendered to the leftist ideals of something called “social justice,” which is nothing more than pure Marxism. In short we are disgusting as a civilized society. We have become an embarrassment to ourselves! And yet, we continue our steep slide into the abyss.

Further degradation of American women by placing them in frontline combat units is unacceptable and, by any standards of human decency, should be unthinkable.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Unless I am seriously mistaken or misinformed, the rate of unemployment in the U.S. remains high and the foreclosure rate on homes is approaching the level of the Depression years. Two major bond rating companies, Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s just warned that, if the federal government doesn’t stop spending and borrowing, America’s Triple-A highest ranking will be down-graded.

Along with all the other things in the federal budget wish list for 2011 are millions to be spent on climate change.

It helps to understand how obscene this is if you pause to consider (1) there is not one damn thing anyone can do about climate change, (2) climate change has been researched and studied since the late 1980s, enough to fill an entire wing of the Congressional Library to hold all the reports, and (3) the only climate change Americans really need to know about is what the weather will be tomorrow.

With a tip of the hat to Climatequotes.com and the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s (AAAS) report on “research development, fiscal year 2011”, let me share just a few of the ways the Obama administration intends to squander your money.

The magic number is $2,481,000,000 and it represents specific amounts devoted to "climate change" research or other programs requested for the 2011 budgets by an alphabet soup of federal agencies that include the Environmental Protection Agency, NASA, Department of Energy (DOE), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of the Interior (DOI), and the Department of Agriculture (DOA).

The figures cited all come from chapter 15 of the AAAS report and you can access it via Climatequotes.com

NOAA’s total budget request is for $5.6 billion, an increase of 17%. It intends to devote $437 million for climate research funding, an increase of $77 million over last year.

Over at the National Science Foundation (NSF), its budget of $7.4 billion (that’s a lot of science!) includes a request for $480 million for Atmospheric and Earth Sciences, $765.5 million for NSF’s Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability program and $19 million for a joint program with DOE “to promote education in clean energy research. An additional $10 million would fund “Climate Change Education” in the nation’s schools. It’s not education, it’s indoctrination.

The Department of Energy which currently is projecting that permits for deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico won’t be forthcoming until, maybe, June. DOE seems oblivious to the fact that the price of oil is set to hit $100 a barrel and higher costs will hit everyone driving anything using gasoline or diesel fuel. Fuel oil prices will rise and any business that uses oil or anything made with oil will be forced to raise its prices. In short, everything.

DOE, however, is in no hurry and, of course, the Obama administration is dead set against ANWR or off-shore exploration and extraction of the BILLIONS of barrels of crude oil projected to exist.

However, DOE is set to receive $28.4 billion in 2011 and that includes $4.6 billion for research and development in its Office of Science and $2.4 billion for energy research and development. Its Office of Biological and Environmental Research is devoted to atmospheric science, including “climate modeling”, which would be allocated $627 million. Last time I checked, oil, coal, and natural gas were not found in the “atmosphere”, but rather were extracted from deep within the Earth.

The entire global warming hoax was and is based on “climate modeling”, all of which consistently found that the Earth was warming at an alarming rate. Except that the Earth is NOT warming. It has been cooling since 1998. And DOE intends to waste $627 million on more modeling. It is worth noting that the most sophisticated models of the National Weather Bureau still cannot predict with any confidence what the weather—not the climate—will be next week.

The Environmental Protection Agency, gearing up to regulate all utilities that produce carbon dioxide and all other industries that do the same, has zero authorization to do so under the Clean Air Act. It is CO2 that is designated by the warmists as the chief culprit for the global warming that is NOT happening.Despite this, EPA has requested $169 million “to reduce greenhouse gas emissions”, with $43.5 million in new funding for “regulatory efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions” through the Clean Air Act. And it wants $22 million for its Global Change Research Program. It is time to shut down this rogue agency before it totally destroys the economy.

Even the Department of Agriculture wants $159 million for “climate change research”, an increase of 42% and $179 million for renewable energy, to “help farmers.” Farmers are heavy users of fossil fuels to operate the machinery needed to till, plant, and harvest crops. They need reliable energy, not "renewable" energy.

The Recovery Act of 2009 has managed to blow more than $600 million on climate change research and billions on greenhouse gas mitigation.

This is just the tip of the ‘climate change’ rip-off in terms of billions wasted or soon to be wasted on “research” that can only be deemed an obscene diversion of taxpayer money that will not benefit a single taxpayer, generate any new jobs except for those in government agencies, and further bankrupt a bankrupted nation about to have its credit rating reduced.

The “scientists”, “regulators”, and “administrators” feasting off this federal largess should be handed a shovel to earn a living on one of those “shovel ready” projects we were told about.

Beyond that, if Congress was really intent on cutting back on spending, they could begin by defunding or shutting down the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, and all the other federal grifters with their snouts rooting around in the climate change trough.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

America: On The BrinkFreedom Of Speech In PerilCivil Unrest, Civil Disobedience, Rioting In The Streets Of America To Follow?A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

The political left in America is playing with fire. As Americans of my generation can tell you our parents warned us many times that playing with fire would get you burned.

The left doesn’t know that. If they do -- they are choosing to ignore it – at their own peril.

So, allow me to lay it out for the left as simply and as plainly as I know how. I apologize for the condescending manner in which this may appear, but, it seems the only way to get through the thick wall between the unrealistic world in which the left lives and the REAL world, where the rest of us live, calls for measures normally reserved for use with pre-school children.

Here goes: As long as Americans have the freedom to speak their minds openly, there will be, at least, some civility. If American’s freedom to speak freely is taken, or restricted, all hell will break lose and that includes the strong possibility, and yes, even the probability of armed resistance.

As I said, the left is playing with fire. They cannot control it. If they do not back off, it will soon become a raging firestorm that will consume them in its ferocity.Civil discourse is great. Even uncivil discourse is, at least, discourse. But when the discourse stops, the remaining avenue of expression is -- combat. It begins with civil disobedience.

THIS IS NOT NEW. AMERICA HAS BEEN THIS WAY BEFORE. It resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans. The pain suffered by our families still burns in the breasts of many Americans even today. It will never go away. The wounds are still open; the scars are still visible, the damage done can never be repaired. America was permanently wounded.

We Americas find ourselves, today, in the same intolerable situation as our forefathers found themselves on that early Spring morning 150 years ago this coming April.

America is split right down the middle in 2011. There are those who love freedom and vow to fight to the last drop of their blood to defend it. Then, there are those who feel that human beings are not capable of handling freedom and therefore it must be taken from them and they should be under the care of a more enlightened government.

THAT is where we stand in America today.

We all know it cannot continue thus.

The coming conflict between freedom lovers and the lovers of slavery is very real and it is just coming into view over the distant horizon.

Maybe we could avoid the coming conflict if Americans were to agree to split, oh, say, at the Mississippi River, and the Socialist Americans choose to live on one side, or the other, of the river and the Free Americans on the other.

Even then I would suggest a wall be built between the two. The wall is to stop fleeing leftists from crossing into the REAL America when their side of the continent is afflicted with a collapsing economy, or they are invaded and simply overrun by some tin pot dictator with a third rate army who simply shouts: “BOO!”

OK. So that idea is ridiculous. Right? Are you SURE about that? I ask only because we Americans are quickly nearing the point at which we can no longer live with each other. Shuffling the seating arrangements in the chamber of the US House of Representatives, during the President’s State of the Union address, is ample evidence that I am not alone in understanding how great the divide has become. Just know this: I am not buying into a cheap demonstration of “togetherness” by our leaders who still think you and I are dumber than fence posts! Not only is that ploy embarrassing – it is insulting!

The divide between left and right in America is now a yawning chasm. There was a time, not so long ago, when I actually thought the rift could be healed. I have since grown up and come to realize that it is not only impossible, but neither side wants the rift healed. Each side wants the other side to just go away.

We must stop the charade. We must admit, openly, that we are two separate peoples. Then, we must do what is necessary to segregate ourselves, one from the other. We must try to do this without going to war, again, with each other. It would be far too costly to the Socialist Americans and to the Free Americans.

The United States exists in name only.

Come on, folks! We are anything but “united!” “Hatred” is the name of the river that divides us! Like the peoples of the Balkan states, we are ready to grasp the throat of our counterpart on either side

Yes, I know this is raw, and I don’t expect you will read it anywhere else. But, don’t you think it is about time we face the truth about ourselves?

There are two Americas -- and never more shall the twain meet. WE are no longer a single country, if we ever really were. We are, in fact, two countries – Socialist America and Free America. (I am happy to say that I am among the Free Americans.)

I have never been much for debating any issue. I educate myself on the issue and make a decision. Debating it will not make me change my mind. It isn’t in me.

Debating whether or not America can be healed is not up for debate with this scribe. Since 1865 Americans, both north and south, have placed band-aids over the gaping wounds that divide us and pretended they were healed. The simply truth is -- they have never healed. Not only that but those wounds have metastasized.

It was flat-out idiocy to ever believe those wounds would heal. You cannot have a nation disembowel itself and then believe that nation can go on as if nothing happened. That is stupid! But – that is what Americans tried to do.

The day of reckoning is nigh. Will the Socialist Americans and the Free Americans agree to separate relatively peacefully, or will the two sides go to war. It is a simple question and one that burns to the core of the problem.

Mind you, if we go to war, it will be a never ending war, much as the war in the Balkans never ends and much as the war between the so-called “Palestinians” and the Israelis will continue until Judgment Day.

I read somewhere that Americans immigrating to Australia is at its highest level in many years. Did they already see the handwriting on the wall and decide to get out before the really nasty stuff begins in America? I suspect some of them did.

The dye is cast. The socialism of Obama and the Democratic Party was the catalyst. Americans are gathered on the banks of the Rubicon. All it will take now is the slightest nudge from either side.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Paraphrasing the great American novelist: “ Rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated.”I am still alive and kicking… just not very high.

I have been off-line for a week today.We have been moving our residence.Our eleven room, nearly one hundred year old, home had become a financial drag on our budget.To put it bluntly, it was a money pit. (When it costs you over a thousand dollars a month to heat your residence – then it is time to relocate.

So we moved from the home we owned, mortgage free, to a nice rented cottage, with half the rooms, which is much easier to heat and cool and much kinder to our bank account.

We began the move a week ago today.We are near to three-quarters of the way finished with the move.

It has been a nightmare!

Oh, the moving parting, the actual physical move, itself, was the usual pain in the rear, the back, the arms, etc.

The most vexing problem we had -- and continue to have – was -- and is -- with the utilities companies – especially the phone company!

If I told you what happened with the phone company you would think it was a skit written especially for some weekend late night TV comedy show.In other words, you simply would not believe it!!!Suffice it to say that we have been trying for over a week now to have our telephone number simply transferred from our old address to our new address -- with no luck.Even a threat to report the company to the NC Utilities Commission was shrugged-off by the phone company.

Even one of the largest trash handlers in the nation seems to find it near impossible to deliver a roll-out trash can to a residence in a week.I am not allowed to simply move my old trash container from my old residence to my new residence, which is only three blocks distance.No.That, you see, would be entirely too simple.

The long and short of it is: we expect to complete the move some time before the close of 2011.I doubt we will have our phone problems corrected by that time and I expect we will have canceled our account with them and will have moved on to a bundle of services from our cable provider.

I have been sort of “unplugged” for a week now.I have been catching the news as “catch can” during that time.

I did learn of the Congresswoman’s shooting a day after the event, however, and instantly understood that the left would seize upon the event as a tool to push forward their agenda for gun control in America.

I did manage to see the Democratic Party’s political rally, which was badly camouflaged as a memorial service for those killed in the Tucson, Arizona killing spree in which the Congresswoman was critically injured.It was embarrassing to watch.

The very first thing I noted was the location.The so-called memorial service was held, not in a church, but in a college campus auditorium, or sports arena, or… whatever it was.I suppose the dems thought they might offend someone if they held a memorial service in a religious setting.

I am not going to write a commentary covering all the events I have not commented on in the past week -- but, I DO want to touch on a few things like:

Raising the US debt ceiling.My response to that is -- NO.Do not raise it.Now, I KNOW the GOP WILL raise it, but I would insist,then, that they raise it only trivially forcing Obama to make concessions for that raise and to make concessions for the next request to raise the debt ceiling, as well.In other words, use the debt ceiling as a tool to break back some of the socialist agenda items on Obama’s “to-do" list.

Now, I heard last night, there is a proposal floating about in Washington to have all the congresspersons sit “together” during the President’s State of the Union” speech later this month.Usually, they sit in their political party’s section of the chamber-- the republicans on the right and the democrats on the left.I’d prefer that it be left that way.Republicans should sit with republicans and democrats should sit with democrats.That arrangement makes it much easier for TV viewers to determine which political party supports the President’s socialist agenda and which party does not.

Oh, allow me to point out that one should not misread Obama’s recent “centrist” appearance.It is not real.He is attempting to create the illusion of moving toward the political center in the hope of convincing the less intelligent among us that he is willing to govern from the center.It is a lie.Mr. Obama lusts after a second term as president.If he should win that second term, he will be unrestrained! He will not have to worry about re-election!

A second term for Obama means he will drag the US down into the hell of socialism as deeply as he possibly can within four years. America cannot survive that.

Our job, if seems to me, as conservatives, and the job of the Republican Party, over the next two years, is to see that Obama is unable to mount a successful campaign for President in 2012.At the same time our republican House of Representatives must work diligently to overturn, defund, and render impotent, as much of the socialist agenda of Obama, and his liberal-socialist Democratic Party, as they possibly can.

About Me

J. D. Longstreet is a conservative Southern American (A native sandlapper and an adopted Tar Heel) with a deep passion for the history, heritage, and culture of the southern states of America. At the same time he is a deeply loyal American believing strongly in “America First”.